Aside from Rare’s catalog and a (very) short list of first-party games, I really didn’t like the N64. It had an awful controller, its texture filtering made games look ugly/muddy, and I remember games for it were expensive as hell since it was still using the cartridge medium.

It’s not at the top of my favorite console list but you can’t deny the great games that came out for the N64. Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and Banjo Kazooie are my favorites. So basically anything made by Rare.

I loved the n64 back in the day but I can admit that it has aged poorly for the most part. For example it’s hard to go back to the single analog controller after getting used to double analog ones. Yes it has its share of good-to-great games it severely lacked a good variety of games and unless you loved primitive FPSs, 3D platformers, and wrestling games you can safely skip it unless you grew up to it

When it came to local/everyone-bunch-up-on-the-counch multiplayer, the N64 can’t be beat. During middle school, my friends and I wasted so many hours on games like Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros, Goldeneye, Mario Party, and so on.

I recently found my N64, which was lost for nearly 10 years somewhere in the attic. After throwing it a welcome back party, I picked up some essential games that I missed out on so I can fully appreciate the system.

I was a bit envious seeing my cousins with an N64, because the first-party titles were so polished than some of Sony’s titles. No offense to Spyro, but Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros., Goldeneye, Pokemon Stadium, seemed more appealing to me back then. It felt like a different mood compared to PlayStation.

This console is really crappy in the PAL region. The unmoddable 50hz output, shoddy controller, ugly boxes, no RGB output, blurry textures and a total lack of 2D platformers makes it one of my least favourite systems. At least 3 of those problems are solved if you live in the USA, but I still don’t think it’d be one of my most played systems.

Maybe it had some of the best games of all time, but the whole platform overall is decent at best. I have one, but leaving aside Mario 64, PilotWings 64 and Ocarina of Time, I had a hard time liking it, especially since PS1 and Saturn had more appealing library of games.
And about the controller, I don’t get the people who complained about it. I found it pretty comfortable, since games used the D-pad OR the analog for movement. Almost never both of them (I think there are a few games which actually used both of them but if they are 10 of them, I think it’s too much)

I was a huge Nintendo fan when the N64 came out. In fact, it was probably the last console launch that I was truly excited about. I had to wait about a year to get one after its release, but I was thrilled when I did. Between Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Ocarina of Time, and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, I had a lot of fun with it.

…But you see, those games I mentioned were almost the only games I ever bought for the system when it was new. Part of the reason for this is that I was too young to have a job, and therefore ready access to money, and the N64 carts were expensive. But the main reason is that I started playing PS1 with my brother, and he got me one for my birthday less than a year after I got the N64. And oh man, what a different experience that was. I was getting heavily into genres like fighting games and RPGs, of which the PS1 (and my favorite before it, the SNES) had plenty… but of which the N64 had almost none, and the few it had were largely mediocre. I bought more SNES carts than N64 carts during its heyday, and it had little to do with the fact that they were cheaper (then, anyway, unlike today).

So yeah, I had some great fun with the N64, but it was also the most disappointing system I ever owned, if that makes sense. I really don’t have that much interest in collecting for it these days either.

I have a soft spot for N64 since it was a huge part of my childhood along with the SNES. Both Mario and Zelda took PERFECT steps into 3D here. I’m still amazed they managed it so well on the first try. Graphically it belongs to the awkward age where 3D was all the rage but it didn’t look very good yet so it might not be as timeless as Super Nintendo games for example but many of the titles still managed to look pretty nice.